CHICAS PRODUCTIONS: Copyright

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Showing posts with label Copyright. Show all posts

Friday, October 12, 2012

Bootleg music downloading a thing of the past? Not so, study says...

Americans downloaded nearly 760 million songs using the BitTorrent file-sharing network in the first six months of this year -- surpassing the number of digital tracks purchased over that same period, according to a new report.

BitTorrent's technology allows Web users to share large files by downloading small pieces from many computers at once. Although not all music available on BitTorrent is pirated the majority of the songs delivered through the network are not licensed.

The findings of London researcher Musicmetric suggest that turning to the courts to block access to sites that facilitate illegal downloads -- as happened earlier this year in Britain, where Internet service providers were ordered to block access to the Pirate Bay -- is doing little to deter piracy.

"There was no significant change in the number of illegal downloads," said Marie-Alicia Chang, Musicmetric's co-founder and head of business development. "In other words, if people want to combat it ... singling out certain services isn't really going to do anything."

The U.S. continues to lead the world in BitTorrent use, based on Musicmetric's examination of individual file downloads.

Americans used the file-sharing network to grab 97 million albums and singles in the first half of the year (assuming an album contains 10 tracks, the total number of song downloads would exceed 759 million). By contrast, U.S. consumers bought 698 million digital singles in that period, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Gainesville, Fla.; Albany, Ga.; Fairbanks, Alaska; Lexington, Ky.; and Tallahassee, Fla., lead the nation in per capita downloads. But big cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago lead in total BitTorrent use.

The most popular downloads read like a Billboard chart. They include L'il Wayne and Drake's "The Motto," Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Watch the Throne" and Big Sean's "Finally Famous." In Los Angeles, rapper Tyga, music producer and DJ Skrillex and the rock duo The Black Keys are more popular than elsewhere in the country, based on BitTorrent downloads.

Online piracy decreased slightly in countries where people have access to licensed streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora, which serve as alternative sources for free online delivery of millions of songs. Spotify is available in five of the 10 countries where use of BitTorrent is shrinking -- including Britain and the U.S.

"If you're trying to kill piracy by whatever means, whether it's by legal means or by creating new ways for consumers to get content, you need to know if you're having any effect," said Gregory Mead, Musicmetric's co-founder and chief executive. "We report the numbers."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

More info:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for reading us,
Thank you for your time,
Hope you'll found the information you expected,
Don't hesitate contacting us,
Have a great day ☼
Chicas Team ❤

--------------------------------------------------------> Submit to: Show contact info
In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A.

www.chicas-productions.com
------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Judge Denies Megaupload's Motion to Dismiss Copyright Case..

U.S. District Court Judge Liam O'Grady has rejected Megaupload's attempt to escape prosecution for allegedly committing massive copyright infringement.

Hollywood Docket: Megaupload Wants Dismissal; News Corp. Sued by Shareholders
Attorneys for Megaupload argued that the company was foreign-based and that the U.S. government was unable to satisfy the correct procedures to properly serve a summons.

THR COVER: Megaupload's Kim Dotcom: Inside the Wild Life and Dramatic Fall of the Nerd Who Burned Hollywood

Federal prosecutors reacted to this argument by telling Judge O'Grady this "line of reasoning leads to the incredible conclusion that foreign corporations can commit crimes in the United States without risk of being brought to justice here."

Point goes to the U.S. government.
In a decision on Friday, the federal judge terms Megaupload's dismissal demands to be "extreme" and denies the request.

In January, federal prosecutors brought criminal action against seven Megaupload employees, including founder Kim Dotcom. Along with charging specific individuals with crimes including criminal copyright infringement, racketeering, money laundering and fraud, prosecutors are also attempting to hold criminally liable Megaupload as a corporation.

In asking for a dismissal, the company's lawyers pointed to Rule 4 of Criminal Procedure, which indicates that a summons be mailed to the company's "last known address within the district or to its principal place of business elsewhere in the United States."

STORY: Inside the World of Cyber-Lockers

The U.S. government attempted to deliver summons to Megaupload's address in Hong Kong, and told the judge that Megaupload was clearly aware of the proceedings.
The criminal proceedings against Megaupload won't end because the judge doesn't think that the remedy for any defective summons service is dismissal.
"Rule 4 does not require a result so extreme as dismissal, and to this Court's knowledge, no court has ever dismissed an indictment for failure to meet Rule 4's secondary mailing requirement," the judge writes in his order.

Judge O'Grady echoes the government's belief that the rules weren't intended to be interpreted for the evasion of foreign defendants. He writes, "It is doubtful that Congress would stamp with approval a procedural rule permitting a corporate defendant to intentionally violate the laws of this country, yet evade the jurisdiction of United States' courts by purposefully failing to establish an address here."
The judge goes onto to make his own interpretation of Rule 4, saying that mailing a summons to the address of corporation's alter ego is the same as mailing the summons to the corporation itself. Often, that means mailing it to the domestic subsidiary of the foreign company; here, it could mean Kim Dotcom if he's ordered to be extradited at a later point.

"So long as the government could prove that an individual defendant is an alter ego of the corporate defendant, the government could satisfy Rule 4's mailing requirement by mailing a copy of the summons to one of the individual defendants once that defendant is extradited to this district," writes the judge.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Weinstein praises Gallic anti-piracy laws...

He urges other countries to follow suit
By ROBERT MITCHELL

Weinstein

LONDON
Harvey Weinstein called on the U.K., U.S. and other governments to follow France in enacting stricter anti-piracy laws to protect filmmakers as he delivered the keynote address to an industry audience at the start of the 56th BFI London Film Festival's Industry Program Thursday night.

He encouraged the global film industry to unite to change piracy laws, to oppose broadcaster consolidation and to preserve film heritage.

Following a reel of Weinstein's pics, including this year's "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Master" and "Django Unchained," BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill introduced Weinstein as "the godfather of the sort of film the BFI stands for. Harvey all but created the world of modern independent cinema."

Weinstein talked to the audience about three problems he felt were facing the film industry.

He attacked Internet piracy. "Our business is much more robust than we are feeling right now, but the benefits are going to other people," said Weinstein, saying unauthorized online use of film and film clips denied actors, directors, composers and other filmmakers of their rightful returns.

"It's like going into a clothing store, taking a few shirts and saying 'I believe in free shirts."

He praised the tough stance in France, signed into law in May 2009 by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, where government agency Hadopi (Haute Autorite pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet) has the authority to cut users' Internet connections before taking them to court.

"It works in France, they shut you down. People are disincentivized to steal. We need to emulate the French laws in the U.K., the U.S. and around the world," said Weinstein.

Next he addressed the growing consolidation of TV companies leading to reduced competition for movies.

"We will end up with six companies owning 500 channels. There will be no diversity. The world will get smaller and smaller and smaller," said Weinstein. "They say 'we have six networks so we'll put one president and one buyer in charge of all and fire five presidents and five buyers as it's more economical, but then filmmakers, writers, actors and composers get less.

"I am worried about the regulators not being smart enough to handle the problem."

He called for the global film industry to highlight the problem reduced competition has on filmmakers.

Finally he addressed what he called the "threat against the heritage of cinema," raising a concern that too many film executives do not watch and understand "the rich history" of cinema.

He used clips from a series of classic movies by F.W. Murnau, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Charles Chaplin, King Hu and John Huston to illustrate the debt modern filmmakers owe to their predecessors and to suggest that filmmakers should learn from them.

"We have to put some of our own time in to remind us what we love about the movies, to understand how we profit from the past."

Asked by London fest director Clare Stewart whether he perceived a threat to originality in Hollywood with the proliferation of sequels and remakes, he praised Joss Whedon's summer blockbuster "The Avengers" as an example of smart filmmaking, but criticized the studios for being too happy to put out inferior product where they know an audience will turn out regardless.

"These giant companies produce movies for profit. We want to be profitable too, but we want to do something worthwhile and innovative. I haven't gone there yet but there's always a strong possibility I'll be selling out shortly," he joked.

Reflecting on the recent shootings at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," Weinstein revealed he is planning to assemble a panel for next year's Sundance Film Festival to discuss the issue of violence in cinema.

"I don't know how violence effects audiences. I want to do a panel about that at Sundance with people that have studied it. I have no answers and I've made a lot of very violent movies."

Thank you Variety

Google Search to Start Targeting Copyright Violators...

Article from Aug 2012

The new policy, meant to promote high-quality media sources on the web, won't banish sites like torrenthound.com entirely -- but they will turn up much lower in results.

In a bid to steer Internet users to higher-quality video, audio, images and text on the web, Google beginning next week will push links that most likely contain content that violates copyrights lower in search results.

The effort should thrill the creators of TV shows, movies and music that have long complained of Internet pirates who illegally post their content on websites they have no control over and, therefore, earn no money from.

Google said in a blog post Friday that sites receiving a large number of valid copyright removal notices will continue to be listed during a search, though much lower on the results page.

An example of some of the sites that could be negatively impacted by Google's new policy are filestube.com, extratorrent.com, torrenthound.com, bitsnoop.com and isohunt.com.

The new "signal," the latest of more than 200 already used in Google search algorithms, will apply to all of the sites the Google index touches, which amounts to an estimated 30 trillion unique URLs.

"The ranking change," senior vp engineering Amit Singhal blogged, "should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily -- whether it's a song previewed on NPR's music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify."

In a statement, the MPAA cautiously applauded the move.

"We are optimistic that Google's actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe. We will be watching this development closely – the devil is always in the details – and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves."

The RIAA on Friday called the new policy "a potentially significant change" that it has been "urging Google to take for a long time."

"Google has signaled a new willingness to value the rights of creators," the RIAA said in a press release. "That is good news indeed. And the online marketplace for the hundreds of licensed digital services embraced by the music business is better today than it was yesterday."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood Studios Reach Deal With China's Taobao on Anti-Piracy Efforts...

The Chinese e-commerce giant pledges more aggressive action to curtail counterfeits.

The Motion Picture Association has announced that it has reached a memorandum of understanding with Chinese's largest e-commerce company Taobao to deal with counterfeit and copyright infringing works on the site.

Last year, Taobao appeared on the United States Trade Representative's notorious markets list. Taobao is operated as a unit of the Alibaba Group, which engaged China's Ministry of Commerce to protest the appearance.

Since then, the Chinese company has been negotiating with the MPA, the international counterpart to the MPAA, whose members include Fox, Sony, Disney, and Warner Bros.

STORY: MPAA's Dodd Praises GOP Platform for Protecting Copyrights [4]

The parties have now signed off on a pact.

According to the MPA, Taobao will work with Hollywood studios to identify and remove listings of counterfeits and work with law enforcement to pursue serial offenders. The agreement further calls for shops on Taobao.com to hold a valid "publication license."

Mike Ellis, president and managing director, MPA Asia Pacific, calls the memorandum of understanding a "very significant step in promoting the legitimate sale and distribution of audio-visual content on the Internet. We are very confident of seeing positive and immediate results arising from this initiative.

Taobao holds as much as 70 percent of China's e-commerce marketshare, according to Reuters.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for reading us,
Thank you for your time,
Hope you'll found the information you expected,
Don't hesitate contacting us,
Have a great day ☼
Chicas Team ❤

Google Pulls Plug on TV Ad Sales System...

The TV Ads in Adwords service, which faced industry resistance, will come to an end later this year.

Google Search to Start Targeting Copyright Violators

Google Close to Resolving EU Antitrust Probe

Google is pulling the plug on an online exchange that tried to establish the online giant as a major player in the sale of TV ad spots.

In a blog post late Thursday, Google said it would end its TV Ads in Adwords service later this year.
Google has been successfully selling paid-search ads online and wanted to push into the TV ad space, but faced resistance from established players in the TV and advertising communities.
Google's Second-Quarter Financial Report Impresses Wall Street
Hallmark Channel and NBCUniversal's cable channels became early partners, hoping to draw more local advertisers that Google has relationships with. But the Google ad venture was dealt a setback in 2010 when NBCUniversal ended its deal a year early.
"In 2007, we launched Google TV Ads in AdWords to bring digital buying and measurement technologies to traditional TV advertising," Shishir Mehrotra, vp of product at Google's YouTube, wrote in the blog post late Thursday. "Since then, lots of our clients have bought traditional TV advertising for the first time. However, video is increasingly going digital, and users are now watching across numerous devices."
Added Mehrotra: "The future of video advertising is extremely bright, and we're excited to devote ourselves fully to it."
The service's staff would be moved "to other areas at Google," the post said without providing more details.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Why Hollywood Wins in Judge's Rejection of Facebook Privacy Settlement..

Big tech companies like Facebook and Google have been using settlements in privacy lawsuits to fund organizations that have their back in copyright battles with Hollywood.

In a ruling on Friday, a San Francisco judge rejected a $20 million settlement in a class action lawsuit over whether Facebook violated the privacy of its users by featuring them in a "Sponsored Stories" advertisement program.

OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

Facebook Shares Dip Below $20 as Lockout Period Ends

'The Walking Dead' Invade Facebook With New Social Game

The rejection of a settlement where half of the money was to go to lawyers and half to "charity" and almost nothing to actual victims could bolster attention on a maneuver that allows big tech companies like Facebook and Google to funnel money to organizations that are hostile to Hollywood's pro-copyright agenda.
The original lawsuit itself had little to do with Hollywood. Nevertheless, it touches entertainment anyway thanks to the judge's address of cy pres, a legal doctrine born out of Norman French and old estate law that roughly means that when it's hard or impractical to award compensation in court cases, payment can be made as "near as possible," including to not-for-profit organizations with similar interests.
The plaintiffs in the "Sponsored Stories" case sued Facebook for allegedly violating their rights of publicity and California's unfair competition law by using their names and images without consent in ads that were shown to users' online friends on the social network. After two years of litigation, the dispute settled. Facebook agreed to pay $10 million to the plaintiffs' lawyers, $10 million to cy pres recipients, and $37,500 to the three class representatives who were named as plaintiffs. Facebook also agreed to make policy changes that the plaintiffs' expert economist estimated to be worth $103.2 million.
At a hearing earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg was openly skeptical about the cy pres award, wondering how lawyers arrived at that amount and how it stood to benefit Facebook's users. In a ruling rejecting the proposed settlement on Friday, the judge followed this up by saying, "Although it is not a precise science, plaintiffs must show that the cy pres payment represents a reasonable settlement of past damages claims, and that it was not merely plucked from thin air, or wholly inconsequential to them..."
Although the judge didn't rule out the possibility of a cy pres payment in the case -- and reportedly even asked at the hearing, "Why shouldn't the cy pres be $100 million?" -- more focus on who is getting cy press money could be around the bend.
In a column for Forbes in late July, legal analyst Roger Parloff pointed out that a good chunk of cy pres money awarded in privacy cases is going to organizations that "would very likely be getting at least some donations from Google or Facebook" anyway. He notes that recipients Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford collect voluntary contributions from the two big tech companies and "all reliably line up on the tech sector side in scrimmages with copyright holders."
To be fair, each of these organizations does in fact often take strong positions against tech companies on privacy issues, so in a certain regard, it's perfectly appropriate to award them money to monitor these companies going forward.
But so does the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which hasn't found it as easy to collect such money. The difference is that EPIC doesn't win friends in Silicon Valley by taking on Hollywood in legislative and policy debates. It doesn't because copyright matters are mostly outside its purview. Such a disadvantage once led EPIC to complain that one Google cy pres settlement served to divert money "to organizations that are currently paid by Google to lobby for or to consult for the company."
To avoid being shut out of a possible "sponsored stories" settlement, the EPIC along with other groups like the Center for Digital Democracy, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University, have asked to the court to adopt a procedure previously proposed in privacy cases involving Google Buzz and Netflix whereby potential cy pres recipients would disclose connections and contributions from Facebook.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter !
More: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you for reading us,
Thank you for your time,
Hope you'll found the information you expected,
Don't hesitate contacting us,
Have a great day ☼
Chicas Team ❤

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. hammers Canada, other countries over copyright protections...

Canada may be the United States' largest trading partner, but it remains on a "priority watch list" of countries with the worst records for protecting copyrighted material.

In its 2012 annual report on trade barriers and content theft, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk's office put Canada on a list of 13 countries -- including India, China, Pakistan and Russia -- that were singled out as the worst offenders.

The office said it was waiting to see if Canada would enact "long-awaited copyright legislation" and suggested that the country needs to take more steps to tighten border security by "providing customs officials with ex-officio authority to take action against the importation, exportation, and trans-shipment of pirated or counterfeit goods."

Under the category of "positive developments," Kirk's office removed Malaysia and Spain from the watch list, citing improvements to strengthen copyright protections in those countries.

Christopher Dodd, chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, commended the trade representative's office for its report, which he said "highlights content theft and barriers in foreign markets that pose threats to the continued growth of U.S. creative industries and the U.S. economy. Strong copyright protection and enforcement are vital to our industry's ability to create U.S. jobs, grow our own economy, and expand U.S. exports."

Thank you Los Angeles

TimesHave a great day ☼

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

Hong Kong Film Piracy on YouTube Amounts to $308 Million Loss...

Copyright-infringing videos of over 200 films found on world's largest video-sharing website

HONG KONG – Severe copyright infringement of Hong Kong films is rife on YouTube, with pirated footage of over 200 Hong Kong films found on the world's largest video-sharing website, amounting to an estimated loss of over HK$2.4 billion ($308 million) to the local film industry, according to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA members urged YouTube and other video-sharing websites to enforce the German court ruling last Friday (April 20) to implement measures to restrict content that infringe copyright.

Hollywood Studios Lose High Court Appeal in Landmark Australian Piracy Case
Piracy is Good, Canadian Indie Producers Conference Told
The recent local box office hit Love in the Buff was found to be uploaded in its entirety, directly affecting the theatrical gross of the film, a situation that the association called "extremely severe" in a statement.
The videos were taken down after a formal complaint made to YouTube by Media Asia, the copyright holder of Love in the Buff.
But YouTube did not act promptly when contacted by Media Asia to remove the illegally obtained uploaded Buff film, taking days for the removal. John Chong, producer of the film, commented in the statement that YouTube showed "an extreme lack of efficiency in the removal of the pirated videos, but was not responsible for any loss incurred due to the delay in the removal." Previously, the website operator had immediately taken down pirated film material when contacted by the copyright holder.
"YouTube repeatedly requested the copyright holder to prove that they are the holder in order to remove the pirated videos of Love in the Buff, while they allow anyone to claim to be the copyright holder when uploading the videos. It's very unreasonable," MPIA CEO Brian Chung told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. "The pirated videos on YouTube greatly hurt the theatrical performance of the film."
Chong believed the German court ruling on Friday for YouTube to restrict videos that might violate copyright should be enforced for YouTube and other video-sharing websites at the earliest possibility.
In view of the pirated video of Buff on YouTube, MPIA members, which are made up of representatives from most of Hong Kong's film studios, have searched and found in three days over 200 films illegally uploaded on to YouTube, including past and recent Hong Kong Film Awards winners: A Simple Life, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Echoes of the Rainbow, and Shaolin Soccer. Blockbuster Ip Man and its sequel were split into 107 videos, while the pirated YouTube videos of clubbing drama Lan Kwai Fong and Jet Li's Fearless received 1.8 million and 1.4 million hits, respectively. A fight scene from Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon was viewed 4.8 million times.
With accumulated views of over 40 million, MPIA estimated a loss of over HK$2.4 billion to the Hong Kong film industry, based on an average cinema ticket price of HK$60.
"For a video-sharing website of this size and scope, YouTube must have censorship mechanisms to prohibit the uploading of illegal material, such as child pornography or content of extreme violence," Chung added. "It makes no sense for the copyright owner of a current film release to upload the entire film on to YouTube, so how can YouTube allow just anyone to claim to be the copyright owner and show the whole film on their website?"
Chung said the association is not trying to single out YouTube, but the company's international visibility and accessibility has made the severity of the situation impossible for Hong Kong filmmakers to ignore. "YouTube, or any other video-sharing websites, should have a set of ethics in dealing with copyrighted material. It's unfair to the copyright owner," Chung said. "The U.S. has always set great store by the protection of intellectual property. As a company headquartered in the U.S., owned by Google, the world's largest internet search company, it turns out that it allows pirated content on its website. How would the U.S. view this situation?"
YouTube and its parent company Google have not yet replied to The Hollywood Reporter's request for comment.
MPIA members are now in discussion to determine a strategy to combat piracy online, but meanwhile, "due to the urgency and severity of the situation, we'd hope to raise awareness on it as soon as possible," Chung said.
While online piracy is an extension of the larger film piracy issue present since the 1990s, remarked Ip Man director Wilson Yip in the statement, he hoped for effective law enforcement to combat the issue. Free viewing of pirated films would pose an even more serious problem for the film industry, noted Lan Kwai Fong executive producer Patrick Tong, as it is nearly impossible to find the culprit responsible. "It's a harsh blow to the producers and investors, giving rise to a vicious circle of fewer and fewer investors, and a further weakening of the Hong Kong film industry."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Have a great day ☼

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

Supreme Court upholds copyright law...

Supreme Court upholds copyright law
Affirms return of copyright to foreign works once in public domain
By TED JOHNSON

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Congress' ability to extent copyright protection to works by foreign artists and authors that were previously in the public domain.
The high court ruled 6 to 2, with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself.

"Nothing in the historical record, congressional practice or our own jurisprudence warrants exceptional First Amendment solicitude for copyrighted works that were once in the public domain," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion.

Orchestra conductors, educators and homevid distributors challenged the constitutionality of a 1994 act of Congress that restored the copyrights, bringing it in line with earlier trade agreements. Perhaps millions of works were covered, and they had argued that the "entry of a work into the public domain must mark the end of protection, not an intermission."

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, after the law was passed, notices were filed to restore copyrights on almost 50,000 works, including such Alfred Hitchcock titles as "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes," Carol Reed classic "The Third Man" and a host of musical works and Mexican and Latin American films.

The content industry generally favored the restoration of copyrights. The MPAA filed an amicus brief in which it said that U.S. copyright holders could face "retaliatory measures" if the law was overturned, and the U.S. therefore did not honor the 1994 treaty and the Berne Convention, the international agreement in which countries recognize the copyright of works from other signatory countries.

"In aligning the United States with other nations bound by the Berne Convention, and thereby according equitable treatment to once disfavored foreign authors, Congress can hardly be charged with a design to move stealthily toward a regime of perpetual copyrights," Ginsburg wrote.

Thank you Variety.

Have a great day ☼

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

Massive Piracy Lawsuit Over 'The Expendables' Hits Big Roadblock...

Nu Image's lawsuit against 23,322 alleged pirates of The Expendables has taken a big hit. A federal judge in Washington has ordered that the studio must have a good-faith basis for believing those defendants reside in the local jurisdiction before proceeding further. An order issued last week might force the plaintiff's attorneys to drop a good majority of the anonymous John Does who were sued in one of the biggest mass copyright infringement lawsuits in Hollywood history.

As we've reported, the lawsuit was filed earlier this year by the US Copyright Group, a DC-based legal team that has helped pioneer an economical way to sue pirates in US courts. USCG joins multiple individual defendants in a single lawsuit and subpoenas ISPs to identify its customers flagged for sharing copyrighted content on BitTorrent. After that happens, letters are then sent out with demands to settle, lest those identified be pursued in follow-up litigation.

USCG's strategy was first employed on behalf of several independent film companies, and then hit the big time when the firm represented makers of the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker.
Despite resistance from ISPs, which have objected to the "heavy burden" of complying with massive subpoena requests, and despite some push-back by non-profit legal organizations like the EFF and the ACLU, USGC has been quite successful over the past year in getting judges to waive away procedural and jurisdictional objections.

But now the USCG has run into DC District Court Judge Robert Wilkins, who appears to be less friendly to the legal tact, questioning why pirates outside of his district should be sued in his courtroom.

Last month, the judge ordered the plaintiff to show cause why venue and joinder is proper for all 23,322 alleged pirates of The Expendables.

USGC argued that the initial filing was akin to a request for jurisdictional discovery and that such requests have been granted liberally in the past. The firm said it was unusual for courts to dismiss a case for lack of personal jurisdiction before residency could or couldn't be established in the discovery process.

In a decision last week, Judge Wilkins retorts, "While those propositions are generally true, it is also true that the Court 'has broad discretion in its resolution of discovery problems that arise in cases pending before it.' The Court's broad discretion includes imposing reasonable limitations on discovery, particularly where, as here, the Court has a duty to prevent undue burden, harassment, and expense of third parties."

In other words, the judge says he's under no firm obligation to let USGC go on a fishing expedition, and he leans towards the interests of ISPs that don't wish to submit to discovery. Moreover, he encourages the USGC to bring its case against those John Does in other court districts.

And so, Judge Wilkins has decided to only entertain subpoena requests on internet accounts reasonably believed to be located in the District of Columbia.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Have a great day ☼

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.K. Government Drops Website Blocking Plan...

Business secretary Vince Cable announced the change following a review of the policy by telecoms regulator Ofcom.

LONDON -- Plans to block websites that host copyright infringing material are to be abandoned by the government, according to the BBC.

MPAA Wins U.K. Court Case Against File-Sharing Site
Business secretary Vince Cable announced the change following a review of the policy by telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Website blocking was one of the key provisions contained in the Digital Economy Act.
Internet Service Providers had objected to the idea that copyright owners could compel them to cut off some sites.
In the past week, the Motion Picture Association - a group representing film studios - successfully applied for a court injunction requiring BT to block access to an infringing website called Newzbin2.
The action was taken without using the Digital Economy Act, prompting some observers to question the need for the legislation.
Speaking to the BBC, Vince Cable appeared to suggest that the Newzbin2 case had opened up other legal avenues.
"We've discovered that the drafting of the original laws, which took place a year or so ago, were not tight.
"There are test cases being fought in the courts, so we're looking at other ways of achieving the same objective, the blocking objective to protect intellectual property in those cases, but in a way that's legally sound."
The government's decision to drop the DEA's blocking provision was criticized by UK Music, the body which represents musicians and record labels in the U.K.
Its chief executive, Fergal Sharkey said: "Who wants to tell the 80% of music businesses that employ fewer than five people, and the thousands of artists who self-finance the production of their own albums, that to enjoy the protection of the law, all they need now is to have millions of pounds and spend years in court to protect their work."
Mr Cable also announced a raft of measures intended to update the U.K.'s copyright laws.
The changes are based on the Hargreaves Review which was set up to examine current legislation's fitness for purpose in the digital age.
One of the most significant recommendations that the government plans to implement is the legalization of "format shifting" - where users rip content from CDs or DVDs for their own personal use.
"We are talking about big changes," said Mr Cable.
"Bringing the laws more up-to-date to have a proper balance which allows consumers and businesses to operate more freely, but at the same time protect genuinely creative artists and penalize pirates."
The business secretary said the economy would benefit by £8 billion ($13.12 billion) over the next few years by updating the legislation.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Have a great day ☼

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.K. Film, TV Directors Support Rejection of 'Fair Use' Copyright Policy...

Hargreaves Report says the U.K. Government should not introduce measures to allow copyrighted content to be used for free.

LONDON – Directors U.K., the body representing over 4,000 directors working in film and television, said a report looking at copyright and deciding against the introduction of a U.S. "fair use" regime is a good thing.
The report, authored by Ian Hargreaves, said the Google-backed proposal to allow copyrighted content to be used for free, is not something the Government here should aim to introduce in changes to copyright law making.
"We welcome the clear and firm support given to the importance of copyright as a stimulus for creativity, innovation and growth, and for the support for effective enforcement of copyright against theft," said Directors U.K. CEO Andrew Chowns. "We are pleased that Professor Hargreaves has decided against the introduction of a U.S. "fair use" regime.
Hargreaves' report, published Tuesday here, called for 10 changes to archaic regulations that he argued are stunting the growth of the creative and technology industries.
The review was commissioned by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Proposed changes include creating a "one-stop shop" for digital rights clearance and lifting restrictions on parodying copyrighted material.
"We also welcome Professor Hargreaves' vision for modern, efficient and accountable collecting societies operating a flexible copyright licensing regime. Directors U.K. believes the concept of the Digital Copyright Exchange is well worth consideration as a means of licensing digital uses efficiently and we welcome the opportunity to participate in this project," Chowns added.
"We welcome the assurances regarding better enforcement at home and abroad and the measures to assist in rights clearance where there is market failure but we are concerned about a number of recommendations which will have an impact on the film industry including proposals related to exceptions on copyright and linking the Digital Copyright Exchange to enforcement.
After the report was published, Christopher Marcich, president and managing director, Motion Picture Association, which reps the major Hollywood film studios, issued a statement.
Marcich said the MPA is ready and willing to "engaging with the government on these proposals to ensure that the vital safeguards provided by IP protection, which give the creative sector its value, are maintained and that any changes are carefully considered in the context of their potential impact on the market place."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YouTube to require 'tutorials' for copyright offenders...

Google Inc.'s online video behemoth YouTube toughened its enforcement of copyright laws, requiring violators to attend "copyright school" and pass a test before they can resume uploading videos to the site.

The changes come amid calls -- both in Hollywood and in Congress -- that YouTube do more to combat piracy. Google General Counsel Kent Walker recently defended the search giant's commitment to content protection in testimony this month before the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on intellectual property.

Under the new rules, YouTube users who receive notice that they used someone else's content without authorization must attend "YouTube Copyright School," which entails watching a tutorial and passing a quiz to demonstrate they understand the rules governing content. YouTube also created an online resource center to help educate YouTube user about the nuances of copyright law.

"Because copyright law can be complicated, education is critical to ensure that our users understand the rules and continue to play by them," YouTube wrote in a blog post Thursday notifying users of the new policy. "That's why today we're releasing a new tutorial on copyright and a redesigned copyright help center. We're also making two changes to our copyright process to be sure that our users understand the rules, and that users who abide by those rules can remain active on the site."

YouTube suspends users who have received three notices of copyright violation. Under the new rules, longtime YouTube content creators, who have uploaded "thousands" of videos but nonetheless receive a third strike, can avoid suspension if they successfully complete the copyright school and demonstrate "good behavior over time."

Christopher J. Dodd, the new head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the industry's lobbying arm, issued a statement applauding Google's recognition of copyright problems on YouTube -- and calling on the search giant to do even more to deter Internet piracy.

"To help demonstrate whether its new program is effective, we would hope that Google shares the data regarding its impact on repeat infringers as well as details on the speed in which it takes down illegal content found on its sites," Dodd said in a statement. "We also hope that Google will now take long overdue steps to address its role as a search engine in providing priority listings and rankings for rogue sites offering stolen movies and television shows."

YouTube has had a Content ID system in place since 2007 that scans videos as they are uploaded to determine whether it is someone else's copyrighted work. If the system finds a match, YouTube follows the rules the content owner has put in place to determine what to do with the new video -- whether to block it, track it or attempt to place advertising against it and share the revenue.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MPAA Sues Movie-Streaming Service Zediva...

UPDATED: It files a copyright infringement suit, claiming Zediva illegally streams movies to its customers without obtaining required licenses from the movie studios.

The MPAA is taking action against one of the hottest, if legally questionable, online streaming services, Zediva, which has gained a boisterous following since its launch earlier this year by going places that Netflix won't -- streaming relatively recent films like The Fighter, The Social Network and Black Swan.

Zediva claims its business model is innovative yet completely legitimate. The company rents its users a DVD player and a DVD, and customers use their computers like remote controls, playing a movie from afar. Streaming 10 movies costs users only $10, a cheap enough price that consumers, perhaps looking for piracy alternatives, have been signing up in growing numbers.
The question, though, is whether Zediva needs a studio's license before exhibiting these films to audiences.

Zediva believes itself to be akin to a traditional brick-and-mortar rental company like Blockbuster in the 1990s. It points out that when a customer "rents" a movie, that film is taken out of circulation. Zediva doesn't create a digital copy. Instead, it's just playing a video remotely at a customer's bequest in what it deems to be a private exhibition.

In a federal copyright lawsuit filed Monday in California District Court, the MPAA disputes the private nature of the streaming service. Instead, the movie industry believes that Zediva is infringing its "exclusive rights to perform their works publicly."

According to the complaint, Zediva's comparison of its service "to a rental store is disingenuous, and Defendants are attempting to rely on technical gimmicks in an effort to avoid complying with U.S. Copyright Law. Defendants operate an online VOD service, not a neighborhood rental store."
Zediva will likely hope a court will see this issue similar to how the Second Circuit Court of Appeals saw a plan a couple years back from Cablevision to begin offering its customers remote storage DVR capabilities for television programming. In that lawsuit, studios sued on the ground that Cablevision was violating its copyrights and its exclusive authority over public performances, and similarly to the latest lawsuit, claimed Cablevision had created "an unauthorized video-on-demand service."
The Second Circuit disagreed, ruling that Cablevision had no control over what programs were being delivered and saying that a single customer transmitting to oneself wasn't any more public than a customer recording a program with his or her own DVR.
However, television is a different bulwark than movies. By the time Cablevision's remote-DVR plan had hit the court, services like Tivo and Slingbox had already established itself on the marketplace without much legal challenge. Cablevision was merely asking a court to let it take a step a few mere inches forward.
In contrast, movie studios are arguing that Zediva's plans will upend their business model and relationships with iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and others, and can point to its own body of favorable case law on the subject.
Copyright scholar James Grimmelmann, for one, points to several cases that will work against Zediva, including one involving a brick-and-mortar rental store named Maxwell's, which rented videotapes to customers, along with private 4'x6' exhibition booths in the rear of the store. Similar to how Zediva operates, Maxwell's customers reserved a so-called "private exhibition" of these movies as the video stores' clerks queued up the videos from afar. A court later found this operation to be "not distinguishable in any significant manner from the exhibition of films at a conventional movie theater."
It was, in the court's opinion, a "public performance."
The MPAA is claiming maximum statutory damages in the amount of $150,000 per infringement for Zediva's alleged copyright violations.
Zediva hasn't yet issued a response to the movie industry's claims.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unions Speak Out Against Piracy...

Joining federal lawmakers at a piracy press conference, the labor organizations denounced "profiteers" who traffic in illegally obtained content.
Representatives from the DGA, AFTRA, IATSE and SAG joined Congressional lawmakers at a press conference today on Capitol Hill to discuss fighting copyright infringement and Internet theft.
RELATED TOPICS
•Labor
The unions released a statement decrying "Illegal downloading and streaming of the content made by our members" and stating that those practices "pose a devastating threat to the future of the hundreds of thousands of working men and women who make up the American entertainment industry."
The release noted that those guilds and unions represent 300,000 creators, performers and craftspeople who create films, television programs and sound recordings. The Writers Guild was not part of the press conference, but both the WGA West and East have spoken out against piracy as well.
The union statement argued that "Professional content is a driving force behind the massive popularity of the Internet" and blasted "profiteers who knowingly traffic in content they have obtained illegally and played no role at all in creating or financing."
The press conference did not appear to be connected to any new legislative efforts to address unauthorized downloading or streaming.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

------------------------------------------------------ --> Submit to:

Show contact info

In order to avoid all the SCAMS, we decide not to publish all the info of the recruter in the job postings. You'll find the Daily Password in our Monthly Newsletter. You can Subscribe to our Newsletter here Thanks. A. www.chicas-productions.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --> Translate post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, October 12, 2012

Bootleg music downloading a thing of the past? Not so, study says...

U.S. Judge Denies Megaupload's Motion to Dismiss Copyright Case..

Weinstein praises Gallic anti-piracy laws...

Google Search to Start Targeting Copyright Violators...

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Hollywood Studios Reach Deal With China's Taobao on Anti-Piracy Efforts...

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Google Pulls Plug on TV Ad Sales System...

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Why Hollywood Wins in Judge's Rejection of Facebook Privacy Settlement..

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

U.S. hammers Canada, other countries over copyright protections...

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Hong Kong Film Piracy on YouTube Amounts to $308 Million Loss...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Supreme Court upholds copyright law...

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Massive Piracy Lawsuit Over 'The Expendables' Hits Big Roadblock...

U.K. Government Drops Website Blocking Plan...

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

U.K. Film, TV Directors Support Rejection of 'Fair Use' Copyright Policy...

Thursday, April 14, 2011

YouTube to require 'tutorials' for copyright offenders...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

MPAA Sues Movie-Streaming Service Zediva...

Unions Speak Out Against Piracy...